According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, for the 1st time in history more than 1 million homes are now in foreclosure. More than one million properties are officially in foreclosure, the largest rate ever recorded, according to a financial trade group that also warned recently that foreclosure numbers will continue to rise. The Mortgage Bankers Association's first quarter report showed that a record 2.5% of all loans being serviced by its members are now in foreclosure, which works out to about 1.1 million homes. That's up from the 2% of loans, or about 938,000 homes, that were in foreclosure at the end of 2007. The report also showed that 448,000 homes, or about 1% of loans being serviced, began the foreclosure process during the first quarter. That's up from about 382,000 homes, or 0.83%, that entered foreclosure in the last three months of 2007. The seasonally-adjusted rate of homeowners behind on their mortgage payments also hit a record high. Nearly 3 million home loans, or 6.4%, have missed at least one payment, while about 737,000 are at least three months past due, but not yet in foreclosure.

Foreclosure is something most homeowners thought could never happen to them. The unfortunate reality is that hundreds of thousands of homeowners have experienced a foreclosure in the last two years. Now with many lenders and banks in jeopardy of bankruptcy, loan modifications are becoming more frequent much earlier in the process.